What it do with Lue

SAN BERNARDINO, CA — Jaeden Alex, reigning SAL triple jump champion, a junior at Rialto High School, who won the San Andreas League Triple Jump title as a sophomore in 2015, has been working hard in the classroom as well as the track. She recently ranked as one of the top two jumpers in the league, and one of the best in the area. Her personal best came at SAL finals last year with a 35’ 6 jump, and a trip to CIF Prelims.

Emerald Taylor, a senior at Rialto High School, who won third place at the SAL finals last year as a junior and 4th in league as a sophomore, she’s set her sights on solidifying a 2016 league championship this year and going back to CIF prelims. Spending her whole off-season training and focusing, she recently jumped 36’ 4 against Indian Springs High School on April 13. She is college bound with a 1350 SAT and a 19 on her ACT. Colleges have already begun showing interest in her as a jumper.

Honorees of the 2016 COE Gala and Inland Valley News Inc. Board Members during the Press Conference Luncheon held at Mt. San Antonia Gardens. Photo by Naomi K. Bonman

UPLAND, CA- The days are counting down until the most illustrious event in the Inland Valley and Inland Empire. Don’t miss the opportunity to attend this event, buy your tickets today!  The Inland Valley News Inc. is thrilled to present its 19th Annual Celebration of Excellence Awards Gala and Scholarship Dinner, “Investing in the Next Generation of World Changers,” to be held on Friday, April 29, at Doubletree by Hilton located at 222 North Vineyard Avenue in Ontario.

The Celebration of Excellence Awards Gala and Scholarship Dinner is a community outreach program of the Inland Valley News, sponsored together with its affiliated not for- profit, public benefit 501(c)(3) corporation, Shining Glory Publications. The event is one of the few true celebrations of the achievements and contributions of people who help make this community the jewel of Southern California. Last year, hundreds of registered guests, including leaders in business, education, housing, transportation, health care, government, church and media as well as other key decision-makers participated in this annual celebration.

The Publisher’s Awards Recipients are: Tamara Weston, (Macy’s) –Publishers’ Choice; Eric Dickerson, (NFL Hall of Famer, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist) –Lifetime Achievement Award; Dr. Lester J. Jones, (Western University) –Educational Innovation Award; Dr. Martha Melendez, (Arrowhead Regional Medical Center) –Excellence in Community Health Leadership Award; Laura Mancha, (San Bernardino County Board of Education) –Excellence in Educational Leadership; Dr. Felice Loverso, (Casa Colina) – Excellence in Corporate Leadership; Gilbert A. Holmes, JD. (University of La Verne) –Excellence in Jurisprudence Award; Richard E. Yochum (Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center) –Excellence in Hospital Administration Award.  The Community Awards Recipients are: Kenneth Gray, Excellence for being a Champion of Change; Linda Wright-Lee, Excellence in Community Activism; Antoine & Heather Dunham, Excellence in Youth Empowerment; A. Majadi, Excellence in Youth Advocacy; and Larry Ortega; Excellence in Technology Activism.

Congratulations to all our honorees and recipients of the 2016 Celebration of Excellence.

The proceeds from this event will provide scholarships and internships through the IVN Scholars program. The IVN Scholars Program was designed to provide Shining Glory Scholarship recipients who are pursuing education or careers in mass communications, the arts, as well as those who are pursuing careers in the STEM-related industries with more than just money for college.

“The goal was and still is to extend our reach as we work to prepare the next generation of global leaders who will work to make the world better. Students within the program are paired with highly trained mentors who support them throughout their entire undergraduate career. Additionally, participants receive ongoing comprehensive leadership development training, service learning opportunities and internships within their respective areas of interest. The intent is to use these different facets as a means to fostering the 21st century competencies and leadership capacities necessary for them to become powerful, thoughtful and engaged world changers. We at the IVN Scholars Program are excited to induct our second class of future world changers who will join our program this Fall” said, Ta Mia Morrow, Executive Director.

For more information tickets, sponsorships regarding the Celebration of Excellence Awards Gala and Scholarship Gala, please do not hesitate to contact the IVN office at (909) 985-0072 or visit www.coegala.org or www.inlandvalleynews.com.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA-Authors from throughout Southern California have been invited to discuss their works, sell, and sign books at the Norman F. Feldheym Central Library on Saturday, April 23, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 

This is a good opportunity to meet local authors and authors from around Southern California who represent many genres; including fiction, non-fiction, science fiction, fantasy, poetry, political cartoons, children’s books, young adult books, local history, and mystery. 

Over 30 authors, poets and cartoonists have confirmed their participation; including Al Ward, Alice Hall, Beth Winokur, Beverly D. Thomas, Carol Wright, David Brown, Elizabeth Briggs, Ernie Garcia, Fred Smith, Gary & Isabel Walbourne, Gina Rider,Herb Williams, Jeri Westerson, John Weeks, Judith Valles, Loralie Kay, Lynette Davis, Makeda Kumasi, Margaret Hill, Marilyn King, Mary Ruth Hughes, Michael Palmer, Mike Kennedy, Molly Jo Realy, Myron Portley, Nick Cataldo, Phil Yeh, Rhea Frances-Tetley, Robert Kirkconnell, Roberta Smith, T’ana Phelice, Terri Elders, and Victoria Taylor. Local non-profit group PoetrIE will have a table and will be doing readings in the Bing Wong Auditorium during the event.

This event is sponsored by the Friends of the San Bernardino Library. For more information, contact Program Coordinator Linda Adams Yeh at (909) 381-8238 or visit www.sbpl.org or www.facebook.com/SBPLfriends.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA- The IECAAC would like to invite you to our Annual Unity Service event on Sunday April 24 at 4 p.m. IECAAC Annual Unity Service will be held at Immanual Praise Fellowship at 9592 7th Street, Rancho Cucamonga California.

This year’s keynote speaker is Pastor Jody Moore who is a native of California. Pastor Moore attended Texas Southern University majoring in Economics and Public Affairs. He was ordained to the Office of Pastor on December 2, 2001 and currently serves as Senior Pastor-Teacher of Praise Tabernacle Bible Church in the City of Chino. Pastor Moore earned a Master’s Degree from the Talbot School of Theology and has held executive leadership roles both in ministry and in several Fortune 500 companies. Pastor Moore specializes in leadership development and organizational assessment. He is the published author of ‘God’s Will is Greater Than Your Plan’. Pastor Moore resides in Chino, California with his wife and three lovely daughters.

For more information please contact Dr. Cummings at (909) 545 -7042.

By Diana L. McKee

There are a few outstanding STEM Plus schools in America which has a near 10 years track record of success with their methods of implementing STEM + concepts within their curriculum.  Whether it be STEM+ entrepreneurship, STEM + internships or SSTEM + Project based learning, these schools have proven to be very effective when implemented and executed correctly.  Good examples can be seen by three schools in Ohio: ·  MC²STEM High School, Cleveland, Ohio, Linden-McKinley Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics High
School, Columbus, Ohio and Metro Early College High School, Columbus, Ohio

At MC2 they focus on project based learning.  Linden McKinley focuses on the latest technology with upwards of 1000 registrants in their school.  Metro Early focuses on real life science experiences with an emphasis on personalized growth and support.

To my knowledge no one has ever successfully argued that STEM subjects are not necessary subjects for college and ultimate scholastic success.  The true scholastic issue is how to weave in the other elements of education in order for the Students to develop the greatest potential for success.

By using models from successful schools, A charter school which is poised to be in Rialto this August is destined to be the next great charter school which successfully combines business, volunteerism and internships to create a 360 degree educational experience for all of their graduates.

Prior to completing their high school education they will have the benefit of experiencing all three of these additional elements to their STEM education.  Then name of the school is Transforming Lives Charter School.  The Location Rialto.  Status-Now registering 7th and 8th grade students.  Be a part of this school, and register your children now.

Lou Coleman

By Lou Coleman

I’m going to make this short and sweet….. It’s a simple message backed up by simple behaviors and a better knowledge of life. You shouldn’t think twice about it! The normal response in the face of greater knowledge and insight is to listen, learn and apply.  Only a fool would deign to say, “Thanks, but no thanks. I got this one.” In fact, that would be downright rude and would showcase how arrogance begets stupidity. This is the most basic message of wisdom: Never “backseat drive” someone who clearly knows more than you and wants to help you.

You see the Bible [God’s revealed mind] has survived the test of time, withstood the stiffest criticisms and defeated all philosophical flavors. And yet the historically unproven, self-serving and foolish thinking of prevailing culture is sending a loud and audacious message to God: We know better. Thanks, but no thanks. We’ll take it from here. Key word… Moron. Only morons would give God the Heisman and say, “Talk to the hand.” Only a moron would say to his Maker, “I’ll take it from here.” Only a moron would attempt to rewrite the conscience, and trick himself out of the simple and divinely ordained mandates written onto the soul. You keep going on like you are; the end will result in a massive time out. It will be weighed, measured and exposed too. And in the end, all will see the folly of pride and the stupidity of arrogance to tell God His business.  You know nothing! God knows best! Living as if God wasn’t even around!

I want you to get this and I want you to get it good as James said in [2 Corinthians 10:10; James 4: 13-17] “For those of you who have reasoned this out and you’re continually talking like this, I have something to say. To those of you who have absolutely no regard for God’s will at all, you reason and you articulate your plans as if God never existed. You say “today or tomorrow, we’ll go into such-and-such a city and continue there a year and do business and make money.” That’s pretty confident talk, isn’t it? That’s typical non-contingency self-designed planning… typical of men. The issue here is not in what is said, the issue here is in what is not said. That’s the implication. There’s no mention of God. There is no thought for God. The foolishness of planning your life as if God did not exist at all, though you even may believe He does. An attitude much like the sinner; exalting yourself above the law of God! Think you are running things and ain’t running nothing! Foolishly ignoring God and showing utter disrespect for His sovereignty. There are no contingencies at all. And the fatal flaw, frankly, is presumption [Luke 12]. Check yourself, before you wreck yourself!

Seriously examine your spiritual direction, devotion, and disposition to develop a plan for doing better continuously. For there is always room for improvement, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Do not greet the next moment in the same form that you entered this one or you might find yourself short when He comes again. “Humility is a choice.” Bow now for certainly you will bow later!

By Diana L. McKee

Many of us can trace our fondest memories or greatest leaps of confidence back to one of our school teachers.  For some it was the second grade teacher who encouraged them to excel at mathematics.  For others it was their 4th grade teacher who comforted them and encouraged them to strive even though sometimes the world just wasn’t fair.  For others it was the counselor who encouraged them to be a strong man or woman and to work hard to achieve their goals because after all, we must strive to shoot for the moon.  If we miss at least we will still be among the stars.

Nowadays it is hard to find teachers who care enough about the students to take a personal interest in their personal and educational development above and beyond their duty of just teaching.  I am sure we can find at least one or two at each school in our Inland Empire Community.  Would it not be fantastic if the majority of the teachers had the same high level of enthusiasm to devote themselves to the success of our students?

Now one of the new charter schools, which will open in August of 2016 is making the act of caring for your students a requirement of being able to teach at the school and remain a teacher at the school. Transforming Lives Charter School literally demand for the teachers to serve as a homeroom type teacher to essentially be a mentor type figure for each student in their homeroom  class.

No other schools in this area has gone through such extraordinary measures to increase the benefits of student support at the level of 7th and 8th grade.

Similar to other STEM schools, I am sure the scholastic aptitude of the students will increased dramatically due to the implementation of the homeroom type style of education, this new charter school is poised to be a record breaker as far as how many of their graduates do well after high school whether they chose to go to the military, university or to immediately begin their career.

If you know of children who are starting the 7th or 8th grade in August 2016 I suggest you register in the school before the spaces are all taken.  The name of the school is Transforming Lives Charter School.

Chidera Okam

By Jamal Eric Watson

If colleges and universities want to find out how to best retain young African-American males, they may want to consult Chidera Okam.

Okam, 20, a senior at California State University, San Bernardino has some concrete and simple ideas that he says can prove useful in keeping young Black men in college.

The upper-class Black men have to get to the first-year students before they drop out of school, says Okam, an economics major from Nigeria who has plans to go on to law school. We have to target these young brothers and educate them about what college is really like.

Seem simple? Perhaps, but experts say that these kinds of high-touch examples go a long way in strengthening ties between young Black and helping them to graduate at higher rates.

For the past four years, Okam has been a member of the Student African American Brotherhood (SAAB) on his campus, an organization founded by Dr. Tyrone Bledsoe in 1990, that has been a forerunner to some of the more recent initiatives focused on African-American men, including President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative.

Since its inception, SAAB has expanded its national presence and now includes more than 200 chapters on college and university campuses and in middle and high schools across the nation.

Okam and about 300 other young men mostly African-American gathered in Dearborn, Michigan, over the weekend with their faculty advisers for the group’s annual national conference. Over two days, the young men networked and talked during fireside chats about a range of topics from mentoring to community building. They also heard from actors Lamman Rucker, Dondre Whitfield and Halle Berry. This year’s theme was, “Transforming the Mindset … Redefining the Narrative.”

“It’s been an eye-opening experience,” Okam says of his participation in SAAB. “I am really committed and eager to reach out and help others coming along.”

These men hug and embrace. They’re not afraid to use the word love. And they openly share their life’s challenge, as one young man did when he reflected on being suicidal a few years ago. Now, he says, he’s on a forward path and has no desire to return to those dark days.

That form of brotherhood has caught the attention of national funders such as the Lumina Foundation, which has been a sponsor of the organization headquartered at the University of Toledo.

Amadin Agho, a marketing and supply chain management major at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), is a junior and attended his second conference.

At IUPUI, there are about 30 students who are active in the SAAB chapter. They get together regularly to talk about personal and academic matters.

“It’s amazing to see so many young Black men who are driven,” says Agho. “It’s also good to see that the SAAB family is growing and that there are new faces joining the family. We are able to lean on each other for support and that’s a good thing.”

Jamal Eric Watson can be reached at jwatson1@diverseeducation.com. You can follow him on Twitter @jamalericwatson.

FONTANA, CA- In honor of our local youth, the Inland Empire Alliance of Black School Educators (IEABSE) presents “It Takes a Village” 2016 Scholarship Celebration, sponsored by Black Voice Foundation and New Life Christian Church. The scholarship celebration will take place on Saturday April 16, 2016 from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Jessie Turner Center located at 15556 Summit Avenue in Fontana. This event is open to the public with a $20 donation, but seating is limited. The Scholarship Celebration foreshadows the IEABSE annually hosted Inland Empire High School Black Graduation Recognition Ceremony (I.E. Black Grad).

The I.E. Black Grad is the largest High School Black Graduation Recognition Ceremony in Southern CA and will be held this year on May 14 at 2 p.m. on the CSU San Bernardino campus where over two thousand individuals are expected to be present. The Scholarship Celebration offers family members, educators and community members an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of local African American students. The scholarship donors are comprised of local organizations and businesses as well as individuals who desire to see Inland Empire students thrive in their educational aspirations.

Seniors from all districts throughout the Inland Empire were invited to apply for our “It Takes A Village” Scholarship Contest where winners will be awarded from $500 to $1000. Each application was evaluated on academic merit, community service, perseverance and leadership.

This year’s special guests include 47^th District Assemblymember, Cheryl Brown, and Fontana Mayor, Aquanetta Warren. There will be representatives from each donor organization and the high schools of the scholarship recipients. An anticipated highlight of the ceremony will be “The Reveal” where students will make final decisions on their college/university choice. For more information please contact IEABSE directly at ieabse@gmail.com.

Ka’la Hill, during the Bodies by Bella Program.

GREENSBORO, NC — Bennett College Junior, Ka’la Hill is stretching her way to the top with her program “Bodies by Bella.”  She was inspired to start the program by First Lady Michelle Obama.

Hill, who is from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, started this program as a way to encourage her fellow students to become more physically active and maintain healthier lives.

On September 29, 2014, Hill scheduled her first Bodies by Bella class.  At first, attendance was very inconsistent.

“I kept showing up, even if no one was there, but that gave me time to learn new things to contribute to my workouts,” she said.

This year, her class popularity has grown from 12 to 20 students in attendance.

Aside from just wanting to help her sisters, Hill attributes her inspiration for starting her program to First Lady Michelle Obama’s, Let’s Move Campaign.  The First Lady’s campaign seeks to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity.

“I would love to get the chance to say thank you to the first lady for inspiring me and teaching me the importance of being physically active,” she said.

Hill is also grateful for the Bennett College experience she has had thus far.  “Bennett taught me how to be a leader. The support of professors and the encouragement of my sisters has helped get me where I am today.”

Now that Hill is a junior, she has been thinking about her plans after Bennett College.  She wants to earn a master’s degree in social work and start a community-based program to target childhood obesity.  She also wants to implement nutritional programs for low-income people.

Until then, she is focusing on how to continue fitness programs for Bennett College.  “By the time that I leave [Bennett], I would like to have several fitness programs in place for my sisters.”

She says that one of the most rewarding experiences from her program is when she hears her sisters say that they have lost weight or that they are seeing a difference.

Bodies by Bella is offered every Monday and Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 7:15 p.m., in the Gym at Bennett College.